The formation of the narrative and the performative in public communication

Abstract

Since the British philosopher John Austin, narratives and performatives have been con­sidered as opposite concepts covered by the generic concept of speech act. At the same time, these concepts were separated according to whether a narrative, inducement, a description, or an imperative was present in the text. Similar to the narrative, the performative is created under pressure from various external factors associated with the system of public communica­tions, to which the author is exposed, and a multitude of reasons that reflect in his or her mind external processes. All these factors and influences transmute in the course of text crea­tion; the viewer/reader consumes ready-made information, which invariably bears an imprint of the author's habitus. When creating a text, the author conveys his or her desires and ex­presses his or her attitude to the chosen problem. This study aims to answers two questions. Can a narrative have at its core an explicit manipulative basis or a hidden motive? Can the picture of the world, which develops, inter alia, under the influence of narratives, serve as a pattern for decision-making by the viewer/reader? It is necessary to this end to identify the relationship between the performative and the narrative (there are several types of these rela­tionships). To answer the above question, the genesis of narratives is considered, possible nar­rative–performative combinations analysed, and the effects of performatives on the formation of the intentional component of the narrative established. The findings suggest that each nar­rative contains at least one performative and that the narrative is based on the performative and contains a manipulative component.

Keywords

• narrative
• performative
• text
• public communications
• manipulation
• inten-tionality
• social reality